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| SKILLS & THRILLS |
22 / 03 / 07 |
Skills - Yoga for divingIncreased fitness and a more relaxed state of mind are among the claimed benefits of yoga, but can it improve your diving technique? Charlotte Boan goes Zen on a yoga diving course. |  | |
Focusing the mind in the Meditation pose
Focusing the mind in the Meditation pose
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Increased fitness and a more relaxed state of mind are among the claimed benefits of yoga, but can it improve your diving technique?
Charlotte Boan goes Zen on a yoga diving course
Can one course really dramatically cut air consumption, improve flexibility, increase fitness, improve buoyancy control and ultimately make you a more proficient diver in one week? These were just a few of the claims about yoga diving cast my way before I flew out to Egypt's northern Sinai for a seven-day course of scuba Zen.
As I was already a yoga convert of sorts, I was not entirely sceptical - although my six months' experience amounted to a humble 45-minutes-a-week 'power yoga' session at the gym. As well as the physical benefit of the various muscle-stretching postures, yoga offers an effective way to switch off, focus entirely on the present time and relax. I experience a similar, although not as intense, feeling while underwater. However, the 'fusion' of yoga and scuba was a concept that perplexed me.
I had visions of fins wrapped around my head, mid-water locust positions and other bizarre underwater contortions - not something I could ever imagine catching on during a dive club trip out of Dorset.
A few minutes into my first meeting with my two yogic tutors in the mellow surroundings of Dahab, however, I was quickly disabused of the notion that yoga diving engages you in some kind of elaborate underwater gymnastics. In fact, there would be no underwater postures on the course, unless we really felt inclined to. Our schedule comprised a 90-minute Hatha-style (exercise orientated) yoga session in the morning, followed by a day shore diving Dahab's reefs. The only requirements: to relax, enjoy, and, above all, open our minds to the experience.
A yoga teacher of 30 years' experience, Barbara Gordon is also a trained psychotherapist and masseuse. Originally from Scotland, she spends six months of the year in Dahab and the other six months in India, where she originally trained with yoga master Swami Vishnudevananda. Although not a diver, Barbara has been teaching yoga to divers for more than six years. The concept of yoga diving holidays was something she developed with diving instructor Monica Farrell. 'I quickly realised the connection between the two,' Barbara says. 'Divers in general, take to yoga immediately due to their familiarity with breathing slowly and deeply and knowing how to relax.'
Barbara says the course attracts a mix of people, from those who already do yoga and want to learn how to dive, and those who already dive and want to add something to their scuba skills.
Of course, some are more open-minded about yoga than others, but Barbara does relish the challenge of converting sceptical customers. Her latest successful converts, she tells me, were two tough-as-they-come Army divers.
'I point out physical benefits and the benefits for diving,' she explains. 'Let's face it, your average person wants to reduce stress and become fitter. That's why recreational yoga is becoming so mainstream. Whether you embrace the spiritual side or not, there are lots of simple physical benefits.'
Unlike most exercises, yoga doesn't involve running around or heavy lifting. But it gives your body a surprisingly thorough workout. Holding poses for extended periods strengthens your core and provides your muscles with extra endurance. It involves a combination of strength, balance, flexibility and concentration, which all benefit diving. Barbara adjusts the classes according to ability, but always places a great emphasis on breathing techniques.
We started with a series of timed inhalations, breath-holds, and exhalations, and with practice I noticed how much longer I could hold my breath and focus for longer. The sensation was both extremely invigorating and relaxing at the same time.
While the postures take time to master, the breathing is perhaps the toughest of the two disciplines to get right. Breathing exercises strengthen the lungs, slow the heart and allow greater control of the breathing reflex. In fact, many of the world's leading free-divers use yoga-breathing techniques to maximise their oxygen intake and improve their breath-holding abilities.
Not only do the techniques help you relax, they also make you more aware of your breathing and how to control it - all key factors in cutting air consumption and dealing with stress underwater.
Neither yoga nor diving experience is necessary to join the yoga diving courses, with bespoke Zen-style learn-to-dive options available. However, the majority of punters are divers who sign up to overcome a fear brought on by a stressful experience in the water or, indeed, in life, which has made them fearful of diving. This is a challenge Barbara's yoga-diving business partner, Monica Farrell, regularly comes across. A highly experienced open-water and technical diving instructor, Monica has spent more than 3,000 hours underwater and has a book full of diving qualifications. American-born, she is also a qualified yoga teacher and psychotherapist.
Monica says diving is a form of meditation for her, whether she is shallow-water diving or deep-trimix diving. She says there is a deep connection between yoga and diving and strongly believes one enhances the other.
'I've never had someone come to me, who was not able to competently dive by the end of the holiday,' she explains. 'We dive in small groups and avoid task-loading and other stress factors in diving. It's getting away from the competitive element of diving, when you are not comparing yourself to other divers. Diving and yoga is not compartmented in your life, it's part of your whole life. Overcoming your fears builds your confidence in all aspects of life.'
Monica bears testament to the claim yogic breathing exercises reduce stress levels for divers of all abilities. Even the basic posture techniques, she says, make divers more comfortable in the water so that they can enjoy their dives more. Monica's dive approach and briefings focus on inner stillness, proper breathing, relaxation and stress management. 'This is so that your dive can bring you to a state of meditation,' she says.
Fresh from our early yoga session, we kitted up and waited for the hordes of 9am divers to leave the water in search of their mid-morning snacks. We headed below the surface and already I felt more relaxed in the water than usual. I casually checked out the reef and found myself stretching out my arms and legs. I noticed how all my yoga-diving buddies were quite slow and deliberate in their movements, compared to the bubbling frenzy of dive groups around us. My buddy and I moved into deeper water, while Monica and her student cruise above. Although, just two dives into his course, Monica's student demonstrated impressive buoyancy technique.
I checked my air gauge, once, twice, then a third time with surprise. An hour into the dive and I'd used less than half of the air in my cylinder. The maximum depth of the dive was 28m and we had been deeper than 20m for as long as computers allowed. I eventually came up with just ten bar less of air in my cylinder than my buddy, an experienced instructor and underwater photographer with thousands of dives under her belt.
By the end of the week, I was feeling the full benefits. The morning stretching techniques had helped to ease my muscles and joints and seemed to have minimised any fatigue. The breathing and relaxation techniques had had a dramatic impact on my air consumption - giving me at least a third more air supply on each dive.
The benefits of yoga for divers go way beyond cutting air consumption, although that in itself is enough to grab most divers' interest. I generally consider my buoyancy to be a good standard for my diving experience, but I still noticed a real improvement over the week. I also found myself slowing down even more than usual, being more alert and having more energy. I was completely focused, my mind not drifting even once from the dive. The stretches even rid me of the post-dive trip lower-back twinges that I usually encounter, caused by pulling cylinders on and off my back three times a day for a week.
I found myself ticking most, if not all, the list of yoga benefits for divers.
While I don't expect to see hordes of divers performing yogic postures and breathing exercises at Stoney Cove on a Saturday morning, I do think most of us would benefit from some yoga diving.
The Course
-Six yoga classes, including asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing technique), meditation, and visualisation technique.
-Diving theory and planning
-Shallow water skills practise and application of breathing, asana and meditation work underwater.
-Open water naturalist dives and observation/study of relationships in the sea.
-At least nine dives.
-Desert dinner and meditation.
Prices including flights and transfers plus bed and breakfast at the Bedouin Moon start at £725. See www.longwoodholidays.co.uk or www.sunrayoga.com or www.reef2000.com.
Yoga on Test - Benefit to Divers
-Slow, deliberate breathing and improvement of air consumption 5/5
-Helps stress management before and during dives 4/5
-Improves buoyancy control 4/5
-Improves mental alertness and ability to learn 4/5
-Teaches how to consciously relax 4/5
-Improves use of peripheral vision and other senses 4/5
-Increases flexibility of joints, ligaments and muscles 5/5
-Stretches the back and shoulders to counter stress of carrying tank 4/5
-Improves overall fitness, including cardiovascular 4/5
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